Planetvb is hosting a Virtual Boy coding competition. The compo will run from Sept 1st until Dec 31st 2013. The winner will get their project released on a physical cartridge, complete-in-box.

The VB has been extremely well documented. You can find everything you want to know about the hardware over at planetvb. There also exists code examples, tutorials, documentation, a coding environment, and more. Developers can use emulation to work on their projects. I am sure planetvb members would be happy to test on actual hardware using their Flash Boy linkers.

The Virtual Boy is a really fun system to use and has a lot of potential. All it needs are some creative coders to release some new games and applications for the system.

A little update. A few projects have emerged since this competition was announced.

The first is a demo for F-Zero Maximum Velocity. This demo was showing great progress but ran into an issue related to the Virtual Boy hardware limitations. The demo runs at 25fps on actual hardware. It also works on emulators. HERE is a link to the project, which includes a great write up and some screen shots.

Another project that was announced was a full 3 act port of Snatcher. The developer aims to have a working demo released for the coding competition and has plans to go on to finish the game. Original sprites, the Sega CD extended intro and 3rd act, will all be included. HERE is a link to the project discussion.

A few devs, with VB homebrew under their belt, have announced interest in this competition. To make it really successful it needs word of mouth advertisement. If you know a retro game developer, a retro game fan, or you belong to a retro community, please help to get the world out!